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Barely weeks ago, Washington was exerting political pressure to convince its closest allies to refrain from joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a global financial institution intended as a competitor to the US-led ADB and to US-dominated institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF.
Last week, the UK rejected Washington's proposals and joined the AIIB seeing it as "an unrivaled opportunity for the UK and Asia to invest and grow together". This outraged senior US officials who accused the UK, to date its closest ally, of "constant accommodation" of China.
Washington has expressed reservations about the new institution, on the grounds that it would not meet environmental standards, procurement requirements and other safeguards adopted by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank for their lending projects.
But fundamentally, Washington views the Chinese venture as a deliberate challenge to those postwar institutions, which are led by the United States and, to a lesser extent, Japan, and the Obama administration has put pressure on allies not to participate…
South Korea and Australia, both of which count China as their largest trading partner, have seriously considered membership but have held back, largely because of forceful warnings from Washington, including a specific appeal to Australia by President Obama.
...
The Chinese Finance Ministry warmly welcomed the British announcement, saying on its website on Friday that if all went well, Britain would formally become a “prospective founding member” of the bank by the end of March.
Within days of the move by London, Germany, France, Italy announced their interest in joining the AIIB, previously discouraged from this move by US warnings. They were quickly followed by South Korea, Australia and Luxembourg, who openly defied lobbying attempts by the Obama administration and expressed interest in joining. Now, as if to coincide with Michelle Obama's visit to Japan, Tokyo has expressed conditional interest in joining the bank.
What do you think of these developments? Do you think they reflect a deterioration of the USA's political influence abroad?
America should join as well, if they don't want this China-led bank to succeed, why not play an inside job to ruin it(not that I think it's a good thing)? It's not like getting angry outside of it would make any difference.
Last edited by Greysholic; 03-20-2015 at 09:16 AM..
What do you think of these developments? Do you think they reflect a deterioration of the USA's political influence abroad?
I don't think it reflects a deterioration of American power or influence. This should come at no surprise if one considers the dramatic rise of China over the last 4 decades. China is already the 2nd largest economy by nominal USD, and the largest by PPP, so it is only natural that they will want a greater say in international monetary policies.
At the same time, Germany/UK/France joining doesn't mean that they are ditching America as allies. It only means that these countries want to hedge against too much exposure to America or China, and that they also want to take advantage of all the benefits of increasing trade with China. I'm quite sure that most intelligent policy makers in DC can understand this rational. If the U.S. were in the those countries' place, the U.S. would do the exact same thing.
And of course, GOP will play their usual "Obama's fault" game in front of the media to score some extra brownie points for 2016. Politics as usual.
The timing of this is quite funny. The very moment the UK decides to ignore warnings from the USA and cast their lot with the Chinese, everyone else stampedes to do likewise.
However much you try to dress it up, anyone can see how this is an embarrassment for Washington. Regardless of whether or not it's true, it's apt to be interpreted as a fundamental loss of trust between the US administration and its closest allies.
The timing of this is quite funny. The very moment the UK decides to ignore warnings from the USA and cast their lot with the Chinese, everyone else stampedes to do likewise.
However much you try to dress it up, anyone can see how this is an embarrassment for Washington. Regardless of whether or not it's true, it's apt to be interpreted as a fundamental loss of trust between the US administration and its closest allies.
Nah there's been much more serious crisis in the past between America and its EU allies. This is hardly anything. It's not uncommon for western European countries to go their own way without America. Keep in mind that these countries are also democracies, and each has their own domestic public opinion (many not so U.S.-friendly), so it always looks good to stand up to America to show your tough side for public opinion points.
How many events outside of the current administration can you name in which the UK, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Australia, et al. - the US's closest allies and the leading industrialised nations of the world - have altogether all at once openly defied direct diplomatic pressure, pleas and warnings from the US government?
How many events outside of the current administration can you name in which the UK, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Australia, et al. - the US's closest allies and the leading industrialised nations of the world - have altogether all at once openly defied direct diplomatic pressure, pleas and warnings from the US government?
There's something called Google where you can search for these answers instead of asking rhetorical questions on C-D.
And yes, blame it on Obama. I'm sure you could've done a much better job had we elected you for POTUS.
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